Summary of Into the Wild

Into the Wild was written by Jon Krakauer. The story is about a young man, McCandless, who changes his name to Alexander. He resided in South Dakota with a man named Wayne Westerberg. McCandless' dysfunctional family is revealed in the beginning. Westerberg tells him many stories of his experiences as a young man and eventually inspires McCandless to camp in the Alaskan wilderness. McCandless searched for edible berries and leaves and would hunt, too. McCandless couldn't handle Alaskan wilderness in the summer and decided to go back. A river had melted stopping from going any further. He was forced to eat wild potatoes until they grew to tough to consume. McCandless attempted to eat the potato's seeds, but they were poisonous and had very harmful side effects. The side effects caused him to have loss of coordination and starvation. Theory has it that McCandless starved to death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild#Summary

Jon Krakauer Biography

Jon Krakauer was born in Massachusetts, 1954.  His family then moved to Oregon when he was two years old.   Krakauer was a very athletic child; he enjoyed mountaineering and competitive tennis in high school. Krakauer studied environmental science while attending Hampshire College.  During college he climbed the Arrigetch Peaks. There, Krakauer was asked to write about his journey in the "American Alpine Journal". Krakauer graduated college in 1976 and got married to Linda Mariam Moore in 1980. Krakauer quit his jobs working as a fisherman and carpenter and became a full time writer. He climbed Mount Everest and while hiking down, four teammates died in an ice storm. Krakauer wrote many articles about hiking and Mt. Rainier. He earned the National Magazine Award and The Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism. Krakauer wrote, Into the Wild, and it became a motion picture in 2007. Then, he wrote a book about his Mt. Everest tragedy, Into Thin Air. Krakauer was awarded "Time" magazine's Best Book of the Year, one of the "New York Times" best books of the year, and the Academy Award in Literature. Then, he wrote the short story, "Eiger Dreams", and then another book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith that reveals religious beliefs in nature.
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